Yeah, there didn't seem to be any point in talking about random things you could theoretically do with circuits, so I went over some things I've actually done with them myself. The LTN tutorial, SE communications/logistics and SE Spaceships tutorials all use circuits a bit more heavily, but they're modded so might not be relevant to you. Still might be interesting though 🙂
For the train limits, you could also use an arithmetic combinator to divide the amount of iron ore by a full train load and output that as ticks to be set as the train limit. That way it scales to more trains automatically.
You have to be careful with that because you can end up with a train limit higher than what the station layout can handle. You either have to limit the buffer chests to limit the available loads, or do some more circuit magic to limit how high the signal can go.
@@Eylrid True, the queuing trains could extend out onto the main line if you don't take that into account. As you suggest, there are various ways of protecting from that but they do add to the complexity
This is a very good primer on common useful things for the circuit network. I'm going to bookmark this and send it to a friend because you present it in a more clear and concise manner than I can.
The is great! I've considered myself pretty competent with circuits in Factorio, but I learned something new with the signal hysteresis sections. That would also be useful for conditionally disabling train stops based on signals to create effective priorities, like for core mining or recycling outputs in Space Exploration. Good stuff!
I'll have to check that out - I assume the "off" one is removed and you just check for >80% charge on the bottom one, instead of checking for red square?
@@LaurencePlays nope, you have to on and off combinators (your left side) and combine the two on the right. You connect input and output, have to use different cable colours and check for green > red output then 1 green, which loops back. But as I said, it’s not that easy to understand what happens
@@marcmessing Ah, that makes some sense, I think - I think I can see how that would work. Still, my suggestion also eliminates a combinator, and is much easier to understand, so I think it's better 😀
Thank you! I've just started playing and I was getting the power flickering issue trying to set up a circuit network to turn the boilers on and off. This was a really good video to learn the basics of how the circuit network works and what to use it for. Thanks for sharing!
Glad to help! Yeah, if your needs are an awkward in-between, youl'l want something to stop the distracting flicker! With larger networks, you might need more accumulators, but the same basic principle applies.
This is one of the few times ive found an actual easy to udnerstand, short, and useful guide. usually when you search for guides or tutorials for this game you usually only get playthroughs or 40 min "guides" (especially for modded content)
Yes, I think about 10 minutes is a good length for a tutorial, although I admit they sometimes go a bit over... The big difference is probably the scripting; if I just started recording and talking, I'd ramble and make mistakes and it would go on for ever! Thanks - I'm glad it was helpful 🙂Check out the rest of my tutorials, if you're interested! There should be a playlist in the description. Or the end card. Or the channel homepage.
Wow this was extremely helpful for understanding circuit networks. For some reason I just struggled to wrap my head around what the different signals and combinators were used for, and despite watching several other tutorials on the matter, they just didn't really help any or just made extremely complicated setups I would never in a million years use etc., but this was sooo clear, helpful, and made a ton of different things "click" for me. Very well done! Your LTN tutorials were also extremely helpful as well!
Yeah, sometimes you want to just start with the basics and give it a try, then work on more advanced setups later. To be honest, in vanilla I've never really used anything more complicated than the circuits in this video. Space Exploration is a whole different thing though, especially with spaceship automation!
This is probably the best guide I've seen on factorio circuit operations and with such good examples and applications that too! Thank you for this well written guide, you've cleared a lot of my confusions (and even phobia) of circuits.
Thank you! Yeah, I feel the best way to teach something is to show some relevant examples, rather than just talk about the concepts. If you can see how to make something that's almost what you want, then it's a lot easier to adapt it than if you just have a vague idea. Circuits are great, but they take some getting used to!
Thanks, I have a slightly better understanding of how to use circuit logic. I'll work on the basics and get good at that, then tackle more complex stuff. Great job explaining!
That's the way to do it! Start with simple systems and work up in complexity once you've got the hang of them. You'll be programming spaceships in no time! Well, apart from the 300 hours of Space Exploration required to get to spaceships, of course! :-D
The last example of the "loop" is really new and cool to me. The ideia of sending the signal back to keep the loop of green square on is really well made
You can make timers with these by feeding 1 into the input as well (so it increases by 1 each tick) and triggering a reset when it reaches a certain number. In hindsight, I wish I'd added that to the video!
I think it may be more suitable for an advanced circuit video... But at the same time, i dont think a video like that is all that necessary, most people dont get to that point lol @@LaurencePlays
@@viniciuspessoa8628 Yeah, it took me a long time to get round to actually using any timers, but we've got a few managing our spaceships! It would have made a nice finisher for the video, I think - an introduction to more complex circuit possibilities.
You're very welcome! I find them useful on other videos, so it's definitely something worth including in mine.
Год назад+1
Regarding the nuclear power setup: there's a slightly (but only slightly) more complex way to setup the system so that only one fuel cell is added at a time and thus you don't need many steam tanks as a buffer (I have 6 per 4-reactor plant and even that seems to be overkill). Then again, if you want to use the steam buffer as an accumulator, then it's not an issue. I prefer a bit different emergency power setup for myself so that I can more easier see if I need to add more base power
True, Marc built up a system that does that for our K2SE run, however it has the downside that if it runs out of fuel cells, it won't self-restart, even if it has power from somewhere else. I suspect a more complex system could be made which achieves both, but I haven't bothered to go to that level of complexity yet as this system works nicely!
Thank you - I'm glad they're useful! The circuit network is very powerful, the hardest part is thinking of things to do with it. 😀 I find modded runs often use it a lot more heavily, our Space Exploration series has a lot of circuits set up.
You're very welcome! I'm glad it helped, but if there's anything else you'd like me to cover in a video, please let me know! I'm always looking for more ideas.
Thank you for this nice, clear, and concise tutorial on circuits. This will help me get some basic configurations made for my next death world run. Are you planning on making a tutorial for more advanced uses of the Circuit Network?
I'm not really planning another one - I think this video covered everything I've used circuits fit in vanilla. Is there anything specific you think I've missed?
10:05 You can remove right bottom combinator and connect (right top) compinator output in input with green cable and set (Green > Red -> 1 Green) (If A < 20, in input is 1 Green, after 1 tick you have 2 Green in input, when A > 20, in input: 1 Green and 0 Red (1 > 0) -> 1Green and it will be live. When A > 80 -> (1Green > 1Red) - > (False) Green will be missing). It can save 1 Kw energy xD.
that has been the best tutorial on circuits i seen, clear and straight forward to pick up compared to others i seen, but i am still at a loss for my own problem. i have an ammo train (ammo goes in wagon number 1, train has 2 wagons on it.) but i want to use it for more than just ammo. i want wagon number 2 to take repair packs and logistic robots (50 of each) as i upgrade my outpost areas (i am playing on a train focused map so ore far away from my main base). but i can not work out how or what values to put where to get the inserter to only put 50 into the wagon ( i got 2 inserters and 2 boxes rather than trying to use only the one box and inserter for everything). i have tried lots of different ideas from different videos but i am ready to give up on it lol if you think you could help i would be very greatful for any advice? but i understand it is complicated to work out from just a comment explination. keep up the good work you do.
Thanks! I'm glad it was useful! It sounds to me like you need to watch this ruclips.net/video/43AM01VcW3Y/видео.html video, which is about exactly the system you're trying to build!
@@LaurencePlays thanks, that video popped up soon after and once i watched it i was all sorted, learned something new too. thanks very much for your help.
@@douglasreid699 Excellent. I'm working gradually towards answering every question people might have about the game, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!
@@LaurencePlays Most of the circuit network videos i saw, the person explaining went through it quickly as they had some form of understanding, and several times i had to go back over it to try to understand them. Some also gave an example and mid way through mentioned other options, i feel if one is going to give an example to just stick to the example, then at the end add the other options. As once i copied the example i was able to change things to what I needed. Most people could probably work that out. A video on game control basics would be useful, i knew about copy/paste, but it took my friend a while to work out how to copy paste on train schedules, i didnt know about item reserving in a wagon, this save im playing i worked out about using ctrl to dump stuff in boxes but didnt know it in previous saves. Probably lots more i still dont know about. I'll try to remember to let you know if i get any other useful ideas. Hope the channel goes well as it grows.
@@douglasreid699 Thanks! Things are going fairly well at the moment - growth has slowed a bit, but it's still generally going upwards 🙂 Basic controls makes a lot of sense, although it's quite hard to think of what to include, since so much of it is automatic these days. You're definitely right about tutorials needing to be straightforward, consistent and not assuming too much knowledge! I'll try to keep them that way!
Nuclear power design ain't good because inserters still insert more fuel than necessary inbetween the time. What you can do instead is set all inserters to stack size 1 and read hand content, and connect all inserters to tanks. output inserter only works if steam tank fall below some amount. for a four reactor set up, about 6 empty tanks worth of space is should be enough, so trigger below limit of steam to be enough. Lastly, set input inserter to only work when output inserter has used fuel cell in hand. That way they all work together.
As long as you've got enough steam tanks to use up the full load of fuel, it's fine. Your way is more complex and this is "circuit network basics", but you're quite right, that would definitely work as well. The problem with your design is if you have a fuel shortage; the system won't neatly restart itself if it misses an unload. So, it's neater and more efficient, but less robust.
Love the video but why does everyone use the train limit with a combinator instead of just using the enable/disable feature already built into the train stop? It even has the nice feature of changing the train stop color on the map to red when disabled.
There are several differences between disabling a stop and setting the train limit. - If a train has more than 2 stops in its route, it will skip a disabled stop, but wait for a limit-0 stop to become available - If you set the train limit, you can set it to larger numbers if you want more trains to come (eg if a mine has enough ore for 3 trains, you can set the limit to 3) - Disabled stations appear red on the map, limit=0 stations appear purple So, you can use whichever you prefer! Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn't.
@@lightneko I should have included it in the video, I guess. 😀 You're quite right though, in the basic case I demonstrated, disabling the station would be simpler. In our current K2SE run (streams and summary videos available on the channel! Shameless plug!) we're using both types of station deactivation, depending on whether we want trains to wait for the station to become ready, or whether we want it to be skipped.
Why not "simply" enable/disable the train station depending on the availability of sufficient cargo? Adding the decider in between seems like a wasted step unless there's a specific benefit in using the train limit over enable/disable.
There are a couple of benefits, neither of which I'm actually taking advantage of here, but I've got into the habit of setting it up like this anyway... - The first benefit is that if you put in a third station (perhaps because you have a separate fuel stop or two loading stations) then the train will travel endlessly between the other two stations, if the station is disabled. If it has a train limit of 0, the train will wait at the previous station. - The second is that this way you can (if you want!) divide the available or required resource by the amount that fits in a train and tell the station to request multiple trains. This is more complex and I haven't talked about it here, but it is an improvement you can make.
Looks like I set myself up for answering said question, by your suggestion of using train limits. Looks like enable/disable with a train limit of 1 is okay, but causes problems if the limit is greater than 1.
@@crashmatrix Also enable/disable can cause the train to just stop if the station it is heading towards becomes disabled. The train limit system has not got this problem as the trains will always continue their journey to the station. Overall the devs at Wube have pushed the train limit system as superior for some time now.
That's not something I've personally needed - I generally try to keep my stations balanced by using belt balancers on the way in and out, however it's definitely something I could talk about. The usual way I think involves reading the contents of the station and having the inserters only run if they have more than the average. I'll have a think about what I can put in a video - thanks for the suggestion!
Yes, it's the same idea, I built it like that for simplicity of explanation and because that's a design I could build off the top of my head! I should probably take a look at the 3 combinator version...
@@LaurencePlaysHey there. I'd be very surprised if you haven't investigated the SR Latch by now so recommending it feels redundant but I was intrigued by the method you came up with. I'd be very interested to test if they are completely behaviourally identical or not. Will give it a go! I'm a big fan of SR Latches for my fill-up stations. E.g. a wall has a train stop that delivers repair packs, walls, ammo (especially oil!) but the train might deliver the required amount and before the train has even left sight of the wall, the combinator setup says 'we need more!' I'm trying to work out if I can use a single SR Latch to serve all the materials needed at a wall repair station (e.g. Come deliver when any item is lower than an arbitrary threshold (set filters on filter inserters so we don't just grab everything out the train) but then fill up to an amount, say, 5 times that lower threshold. It's not quite SR Latch now I think of it but it's similar and now I'm inspired thanks to you!! (Sorry for long essay!)
@@mikeydflyingtoaster I have - I'll probably carry on building them the way I did in this video out of habit, but I am definitely familiar with them! I've used what I think is the system you're suggesting for my outpost stations - see ruclips.net/video/43AM01VcW3Y/видео.html - it doesn't use a latch at all, just adding numbers together with combinators. It certainly has the effect you're asking for, even if it's not made the way you're thinking.
@@LaurencePlays no!! It must be needlessly complicated so everyone knows how clever I am! Bit-shifting… errr memory cells! Pulse generators. I use all of them all the time!!
I would disagree; I've often found myself running low on uranium and having to faff around finding more patches of it, so just steadily burning through it in power stations feels like quite a waste. Granted, I've not played vanilla in quite a while, so things might be different there! Also, in some mods, it can be very useful to have a massive store of power in case of ... emergencies!
I finished the base game without watching any video nor reading any tutorial. I decided to play again with mods and most importantly, knowing what the flying robots and circuits network are useful for, since I launched the rocket without knowing what they do. And after hours watching videos, I STILL DON'T KNOW WHY THE FUCK I SHOULD NEED THOSE THINGS. All videos explain how to do a circuit network, but not why I should need it. I finished the game having a shittone of everything, well organized and flowing throw my base. ¿Why I should waste time learning this mathematical/electronic things and configuring them in-game? ¿What are the benefits of stopping the production of something, if I always need more of most things? And when I need a specific amount of something, like higher tier modules or advanced belt segments, I prefer mounting a temporal, single assembler surrounded with beacons, where I manually insert materials and remove the product, since it's the most accurate and fastest way to obtain what I need in small or specific quantities. It is also part of the enjoyment, as I ""personally supervize"" the manufacture of the often most complex or important items at a given moment. So again, ¿¿WHY I SHOULD NEED THIS??
The short answer is that you don't technically need the circuit networks. You've proved that yourself by launching a rocket without them! The longer answer is that you can do quite a bit of cool stuff with them, which is what this video was about. Whether that's limiting builds, so you don't end up with 2000 radars in a chest or disabling stations when they've got enough stock, it allows you a lot more control over your factory. A lot of mods use the circuit network very heavily - Space Exploration uses it for controlling spaceships, LTN uses it for controlling when trains turn up. Basically it allows you to do cleverer stuff and more complex things.
@@marcelomarquez2089 You'll definitely need them in SE - you could still just let your chests fill up with whatever and not bother to control the trains in detail, but if you want to automate your spaceships (yes, I've made a video about that too!) then you'll absolutely have to use them.
As someone not super well versed with circuits this is a very approachable tutorial. I like that the examples are actual in-game use cases
Yeah, there didn't seem to be any point in talking about random things you could theoretically do with circuits, so I went over some things I've actually done with them myself. The LTN tutorial, SE communications/logistics and SE Spaceships tutorials all use circuits a bit more heavily, but they're modded so might not be relevant to you. Still might be interesting though 🙂
Yeah a lot of the other tutorials are kinda scattered and hard to follow
This one is succinct
Best factorio tutorials out there, concise and informative in incremental levels. Knocking it outta the park.
Thank you! Is there any other part of Factorio you think I've missed and would like to see a Tutorio of?
For the train limits, you could also use an arithmetic combinator to divide the amount of iron ore by a full train load and output that as ticks to be set as the train limit. That way it scales to more trains automatically.
That's true, that would be a very neat way to do it!
Came here to say that as well (=
You have to be careful with that because you can end up with a train limit higher than what the station layout can handle. You either have to limit the buffer chests to limit the available loads, or do some more circuit magic to limit how high the signal can go.
@@Eylrid True, the queuing trains could extend out onto the main line if you don't take that into account. As you suggest, there are various ways of protecting from that but they do add to the complexity
This is a very good primer on common useful things for the circuit network. I'm going to bookmark this and send it to a friend because you present it in a more clear and concise manner than I can.
Thanks! That's exactly what I was hoping to produce 🙂 I'm starting to think a more advanced sequel is needed, but I'm not sure what to include yet.
The is great! I've considered myself pretty competent with circuits in Factorio, but I learned something new with the signal hysteresis sections. That would also be useful for conditionally disabling train stops based on signals to create effective priorities, like for core mining or recycling outputs in Space Exploration. Good stuff!
Yeah, there's almost nothing you can't do with circuits - the trick is working out firstly what you want to do and secondly how to do it!
Your tutorials are some of the best on RUclips
Thank you! I'm glad they're gaining popularity!
This was an excellent tutorial. Straight and to the point! THANKS!
Thank you! I feel like I should do a followup to this with some more complex circuitry, but I'm not sure what would be useful.
For backup power I use the 3 decider latch setup from the wiki. But yours made for an easier explanation.
I'll have to check that out - I assume the "off" one is removed and you just check for >80% charge on the bottom one, instead of checking for red square?
@@LaurencePlays nope, you have to on and off combinators (your left side) and combine the two on the right. You connect input and output, have to use different cable colours and check for green > red output then 1 green, which loops back.
But as I said, it’s not that easy to understand what happens
@@marcmessing Ah, that makes some sense, I think - I think I can see how that would work. Still, my suggestion also eliminates a combinator, and is much easier to understand, so I think it's better 😀
Amazing video mate. Short and quick to the point, well done.
Thank you 🙂 I hope it taught you everything you need!
Thank you! I've just started playing and I was getting the power flickering issue trying to set up a circuit network to turn the boilers on and off. This was a really good video to learn the basics of how the circuit network works and what to use it for. Thanks for sharing!
Glad to help! Yeah, if your needs are an awkward in-between, youl'l want something to stop the distracting flicker! With larger networks, you might need more accumulators, but the same basic principle applies.
This is one of the few times ive found an actual easy to udnerstand, short, and useful guide. usually when you search for guides or tutorials for this game you usually only get playthroughs or 40 min "guides" (especially for modded content)
Yes, I think about 10 minutes is a good length for a tutorial, although I admit they sometimes go a bit over... The big difference is probably the scripting; if I just started recording and talking, I'd ramble and make mistakes and it would go on for ever!
Thanks - I'm glad it was helpful 🙂Check out the rest of my tutorials, if you're interested! There should be a playlist in the description. Or the end card. Or the channel homepage.
the best tutorial so far, after 700 hours of factorio i finally understand how this works, ty so much.
Awesome! Are there any other parts you're struggling with? I'm always interested in ideas for more videos! Have you checked out my train tutorios?
Wow this was extremely helpful for understanding circuit networks. For some reason I just struggled to wrap my head around what the different signals and combinators were used for, and despite watching several other tutorials on the matter, they just didn't really help any or just made extremely complicated setups I would never in a million years use etc., but this was sooo clear, helpful, and made a ton of different things "click" for me. Very well done! Your LTN tutorials were also extremely helpful as well!
Yeah, sometimes you want to just start with the basics and give it a try, then work on more advanced setups later. To be honest, in vanilla I've never really used anything more complicated than the circuits in this video. Space Exploration is a whole different thing though, especially with spaceship automation!
This is probably the best guide I've seen on factorio circuit operations and with such good examples and applications that too!
Thank you for this well written guide, you've cleared a lot of my confusions (and even phobia) of circuits.
Thank you! Yeah, I feel the best way to teach something is to show some relevant examples, rather than just talk about the concepts. If you can see how to make something that's almost what you want, then it's a lot easier to adapt it than if you just have a vague idea. Circuits are great, but they take some getting used to!
Thanks, I have a slightly better understanding of how to use circuit logic. I'll work on the basics and get good at that, then tackle more complex stuff. Great job explaining!
That's the way to do it! Start with simple systems and work up in complexity once you've got the hang of them. You'll be programming spaceships in no time!
Well, apart from the 300 hours of Space Exploration required to get to spaceships, of course! :-D
The last example of the "loop" is really new and cool to me. The ideia of sending the signal back to keep the loop of green square on is really well made
You can make timers with these by feeding 1 into the input as well (so it increases by 1 each tick) and triggering a reset when it reaches a certain number. In hindsight, I wish I'd added that to the video!
I think it may be more suitable for an advanced circuit video... But at the same time, i dont think a video like that is all that necessary, most people dont get to that point lol @@LaurencePlays
@@viniciuspessoa8628 Yeah, it took me a long time to get round to actually using any timers, but we've got a few managing our spaceships! It would have made a nice finisher for the video, I think - an introduction to more complex circuit possibilities.
Yo, thanks for making this clear and concise w/ the timestamps
You're very welcome! I find them useful on other videos, so it's definitely something worth including in mine.
Regarding the nuclear power setup: there's a slightly (but only slightly) more complex way to setup the system so that only one fuel cell is added at a time and thus you don't need many steam tanks as a buffer (I have 6 per 4-reactor plant and even that seems to be overkill). Then again, if you want to use the steam buffer as an accumulator, then it's not an issue. I prefer a bit different emergency power setup for myself so that I can more easier see if I need to add more base power
True, Marc built up a system that does that for our K2SE run, however it has the downside that if it runs out of fuel cells, it won't self-restart, even if it has power from somewhere else. I suspect a more complex system could be made which achieves both, but I haven't bothered to go to that level of complexity yet as this system works nicely!
Your style of tutorial has been fantastic. Thanks a lot, excited to implement these use cases!
Thank you - I'm glad they're useful! The circuit network is very powerful, the hardest part is thinking of things to do with it. 😀 I find modded runs often use it a lot more heavily, our Space Exploration series has a lot of circuits set up.
wonderful explanation
Thank you 🙂
Came here today from your Reddit comment link- thanks for posting, really helpful
You're very welcome! I'm glad it helped, but if there's anything else you'd like me to cover in a video, please let me know! I'm always looking for more ideas.
I swear, the way you describe stuff, you could be a mod maker like Earendel !
Hah, thank you - that's quite a compliment! I'm not a developer though, so I don't think I could. I'll stick with explainer videos!
Thank you for this nice, clear, and concise tutorial on circuits. This will help me get some basic configurations made for my next death world run. Are you planning on making a tutorial for more advanced uses of the Circuit Network?
I'm not really planning another one - I think this video covered everything I've used circuits fit in vanilla. Is there anything specific you think I've missed?
i have learned a lot thank you very much
You're welcome! I'm glad it was useful 🙂
Really Great video thanks
Thank you - I'm glad you found it useful 😀
10:05 You can remove right bottom combinator and connect (right top) compinator output in input with green cable and set (Green > Red -> 1 Green) (If A < 20, in input is 1 Green, after 1 tick you have 2 Green in input, when A > 20, in input: 1 Green and 0 Red (1 > 0) -> 1Green and it will be live. When A > 80 -> (1Green > 1Red) - > (False) Green will be missing). It can save 1 Kw energy xD.
that has been the best tutorial on circuits i seen, clear and straight forward to pick up compared to others i seen, but i am still at a loss for my own problem.
i have an ammo train (ammo goes in wagon number 1, train has 2 wagons on it.) but i want to use it for more than just ammo. i want wagon number 2 to take repair packs and logistic robots (50 of each) as i upgrade my outpost areas (i am playing on a train focused map so ore far away from my main base). but i can not work out how or what values to put where to get the inserter to only put 50 into the wagon ( i got 2 inserters and 2 boxes rather than trying to use only the one box and inserter for everything). i have tried lots of different ideas from different videos but i am ready to give up on it lol
if you think you could help i would be very greatful for any advice? but i understand it is complicated to work out from just a comment explination.
keep up the good work you do.
Thanks! I'm glad it was useful! It sounds to me like you need to watch this ruclips.net/video/43AM01VcW3Y/видео.html video, which is about exactly the system you're trying to build!
@@LaurencePlays
thanks, that video popped up soon after and once i watched it i was all sorted, learned something new too. thanks very much for your help.
@@douglasreid699 Excellent. I'm working gradually towards answering every question people might have about the game, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know!
@@LaurencePlays
Most of the circuit network videos i saw, the person explaining went through it quickly as they had some form of understanding, and several times i had to go back over it to try to understand them.
Some also gave an example and mid way through mentioned other options, i feel if one is going to give an example to just stick to the example, then at the end add the other options. As once i copied the example i was able to change things to what I needed. Most people could probably work that out.
A video on game control basics would be useful, i knew about copy/paste, but it took my friend a while to work out how to copy paste on train schedules, i didnt know about item reserving in a wagon, this save im playing i worked out about using ctrl to dump stuff in boxes but didnt know it in previous saves. Probably lots more i still dont know about.
I'll try to remember to let you know if i get any other useful ideas. Hope the channel goes well as it grows.
@@douglasreid699 Thanks! Things are going fairly well at the moment - growth has slowed a bit, but it's still generally going upwards 🙂 Basic controls makes a lot of sense, although it's quite hard to think of what to include, since so much of it is automatic these days.
You're definitely right about tutorials needing to be straightforward, consistent and not assuming too much knowledge! I'll try to keep them that way!
Great video!
Thank you 😀
Nuclear power design ain't good because inserters still insert more fuel than necessary inbetween the time. What you can do instead is set all inserters to stack size 1 and read hand content, and connect all inserters to tanks. output inserter only works if steam tank fall below some amount. for a four reactor set up, about 6 empty tanks worth of space is should be enough, so trigger below limit of steam to be enough. Lastly, set input inserter to only work when output inserter has used fuel cell in hand. That way they all work together.
As long as you've got enough steam tanks to use up the full load of fuel, it's fine. Your way is more complex and this is "circuit network basics", but you're quite right, that would definitely work as well.
The problem with your design is if you have a fuel shortage; the system won't neatly restart itself if it misses an unload. So, it's neater and more efficient, but less robust.
So great
Thank you!
Love the video but why does everyone use the train limit with a combinator instead of just using the enable/disable feature already built into the train stop? It even has the nice feature of changing the train stop color on the map to red when disabled.
There are several differences between disabling a stop and setting the train limit.
- If a train has more than 2 stops in its route, it will skip a disabled stop, but wait for a limit-0 stop to become available
- If you set the train limit, you can set it to larger numbers if you want more trains to come (eg if a mine has enough ore for 3 trains, you can set the limit to 3)
- Disabled stations appear red on the map, limit=0 stations appear purple
So, you can use whichever you prefer! Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn't.
@LaurencePlays interesting. I never had anyone explain the benefits of limits over e/d considering the second is simpler to set up. Thanks.
@@lightneko I should have included it in the video, I guess. 😀 You're quite right though, in the basic case I demonstrated, disabling the station would be simpler.
In our current K2SE run (streams and summary videos available on the channel! Shameless plug!) we're using both types of station deactivation, depending on whether we want trains to wait for the station to become ready, or whether we want it to be skipped.
Why not "simply" enable/disable the train station depending on the availability of sufficient cargo? Adding the decider in between seems like a wasted step unless there's a specific benefit in using the train limit over enable/disable.
There are a couple of benefits, neither of which I'm actually taking advantage of here, but I've got into the habit of setting it up like this anyway...
- The first benefit is that if you put in a third station (perhaps because you have a separate fuel stop or two loading stations) then the train will travel endlessly between the other two stations, if the station is disabled. If it has a train limit of 0, the train will wait at the previous station.
- The second is that this way you can (if you want!) divide the available or required resource by the amount that fits in a train and tell the station to request multiple trains. This is more complex and I haven't talked about it here, but it is an improvement you can make.
Looks like I set myself up for answering said question, by your suggestion of using train limits. Looks like enable/disable with a train limit of 1 is okay, but causes problems if the limit is greater than 1.
@@LaurencePlays Thanks for the insight!
@@crashmatrix Also enable/disable can cause the train to just stop if the station it is heading towards becomes disabled. The train limit system has not got this problem as the trains will always continue their journey to the station. Overall the devs at Wube have pushed the train limit system as superior for some time now.
Hi, can you do a video on balanced train loading and unloading using circuits?
That's not something I've personally needed - I generally try to keep my stations balanced by using belt balancers on the way in and out, however it's definitely something I could talk about.
The usual way I think involves reading the contents of the station and having the inserters only run if they have more than the average. I'll have a think about what I can put in a video - thanks for the suggestion!
For the hysteresis - is that the same as a SR-latch? Because blueprints for the SR-latch exist, pretty simple and with just 3 combinators
Yes, it's the same idea, I built it like that for simplicity of explanation and because that's a design I could build off the top of my head! I should probably take a look at the 3 combinator version...
@@LaurencePlaysHey there. I'd be very surprised if you haven't investigated the SR Latch by now so recommending it feels redundant but I was intrigued by the method you came up with. I'd be very interested to test if they are completely behaviourally identical or not. Will give it a go! I'm a big fan of SR Latches for my fill-up stations. E.g. a wall has a train stop that delivers repair packs, walls, ammo (especially oil!) but the train might deliver the required amount and before the train has even left sight of the wall, the combinator setup says 'we need more!' I'm trying to work out if I can use a single SR Latch to serve all the materials needed at a wall repair station (e.g. Come deliver when any item is lower than an arbitrary threshold (set filters on filter inserters so we don't just grab everything out the train) but then fill up to an amount, say, 5 times that lower threshold. It's not quite SR Latch now I think of it but it's similar and now I'm inspired thanks to you!! (Sorry for long essay!)
@@mikeydflyingtoaster I have - I'll probably carry on building them the way I did in this video out of habit, but I am definitely familiar with them! I've used what I think is the system you're suggesting for my outpost stations - see ruclips.net/video/43AM01VcW3Y/видео.html - it doesn't use a latch at all, just adding numbers together with combinators. It certainly has the effect you're asking for, even if it's not made the way you're thinking.
@@LaurencePlays no!! It must be needlessly complicated so everyone knows how clever I am! Bit-shifting… errr memory cells! Pulse generators. I use all of them all the time!!
@@mikeydflyingtoaster Sounds like you've fallen down the rabbit hole! 😀
Considering just how cheap uranium is (in base game), and how lag intensive pipes and tanks are, steam storage isn't that useful.
I would disagree; I've often found myself running low on uranium and having to faff around finding more patches of it, so just steadily burning through it in power stations feels like quite a waste. Granted, I've not played vanilla in quite a while, so things might be different there!
Also, in some mods, it can be very useful to have a massive store of power in case of ... emergencies!
I even use a Setup with a timer, so only 1 U-Cell is picked up. So there is 0 waste of energy :D
(mind blow gif)
I'm glad I could help 😀
This is like an Ad ...Ok :) i understand what it can do, but I need a starting point to understand How to do it :) ....search continue
I'm not sure what it's missing - where are you still confused? I intended to start from the basics, but it's possible I didn't go basic enough!
Thanks for explaining nothing too quickly
I finished the base game without watching any video nor reading any tutorial.
I decided to play again with mods and most importantly, knowing what the flying robots and circuits network are useful for, since I launched the rocket without knowing what they do.
And after hours watching videos, I STILL DON'T KNOW WHY THE FUCK I SHOULD NEED THOSE THINGS.
All videos explain how to do a circuit network, but not why I should need it. I finished the game having a shittone of everything, well organized and flowing throw my base. ¿Why I should waste time learning this mathematical/electronic things and configuring them in-game? ¿What are the benefits of stopping the production of something, if I always need more of most things? And when I need a specific amount of something, like higher tier modules or advanced belt segments, I prefer mounting a temporal, single assembler surrounded with beacons, where I manually insert materials and remove the product, since it's the most accurate and fastest way to obtain what I need in small or specific quantities.
It is also part of the enjoyment, as I ""personally supervize"" the manufacture of the often most complex or important items at a given moment.
So again, ¿¿WHY I SHOULD NEED THIS??
The short answer is that you don't technically need the circuit networks. You've proved that yourself by launching a rocket without them! The longer answer is that you can do quite a bit of cool stuff with them, which is what this video was about. Whether that's limiting builds, so you don't end up with 2000 radars in a chest or disabling stations when they've got enough stock, it allows you a lot more control over your factory.
A lot of mods use the circuit network very heavily - Space Exploration uses it for controlling spaceships, LTN uses it for controlling when trains turn up. Basically it allows you to do cleverer stuff and more complex things.
@@LaurencePlays Thanks. I will look the usefulness of circuit networks in Space Exploration, since it's one of the mods I want to play.
@@marcelomarquez2089 You'll definitely need them in SE - you could still just let your chests fill up with whatever and not bother to control the trains in detail, but if you want to automate your spaceships (yes, I've made a video about that too!) then you'll absolutely have to use them.